JaVale McGee, left, and Arron Afflalo were traded by the Nuggets just hours ahead of Thursday’s deadline. (Getty Images)

On Thursday, hours before the NBA’s 1 p.m. trading deadline, the Nuggets got busy and dealt veteran guard Arron Afflalo to Portland in exchange for players and picks, and center JaVale McGee to Philadelphia, the Post’s Christopher Dempsey reported.

The pair of the trades created nearly $19 million in traded player exceptions, giving the team some financial wiggle room to reshape its roster in the coming months. Wilson Chandler, Jameer Nelson, Ty Lawson and Kenneth Faried — all of whom were mentioned as potential trade pieces — are expected to stay in Denver beyond the deadline.

The Nuggets, who, over the years, have put in a lot of money into players whose on-court performance failed to match, may be on the verge of reversing the trend. But here’s a breakdown of just how much the Nuggets sunk into the two players they just unloaded, and how much they received in return:

JaVale McGee, C

Arrival
Acquired from Washington as part of a three-team trade with the Clippers on March 15, 2012.

Departure
Traded to Philadelphia, along with a future first-round pick, to Philadelphia on Feb. 19, 2015. The Nuggets got an $11.25 million trade exception in the deal and unloaded the $12 million remaining on the final year of the four-year contract he signed in 2012.

They are approaching their first trade deadline in a sole “sellers” mindset for the first time in many years. In return they hope to collect more picks — preferably in the first round — and perhaps a player or two they can go forward with as they begin an eight-month retool of a current roster that has fallen well short of preseason expectations.

Now that the NBA is clear of the all-star break, a business “dead period,” deals league-wide will commence. And it got started quickly with Knicks forward Amar’e Stoudemire agreeing to a buyout late Sunday night. Expect the Nuggets name to be attached to numerous trade scenarios. They have a number of players that may or may not be with them in uniform by the time the open the post-all-star portion of the season Friday night at Milwaukee.

Arron Afflalo and Wilson Chandler. Afflalo has risen to the top as the most coveted Nuggets players heading into the deadline. And for a few reasons. First, he’s a solid scorer from the shooting guard spot. He’s second on the team with 14.5 points per game on 42 percent shooting and 33.7 percent from beyond the arc, he can score in a variety of ways and he remains a capable defensive player. However, Chandler’s numbers are almost identical. He’s averaging 13.9 points per game on 42 percent shooting and 33.8 percent from 3-point range. Outside of Chandler’s rebounding advantage — he’s averaging 6.0 per game to Afflalo’s 3.6 — the difference between the two is primarily in their contracts.

We don’t know what Nuggets general manager Tim Connelly and head coach Brian Shaw ultimately have in store in putting their stamp on reworking the Nuggets roster.

But we have clues.

Those clues came in the first few weeks after both were hired in 2014. Shaw talked about playing inside, out. He talked about playing smashmouth basketball. Yet those are things his teams have never been able to get to, in either year of his coaching tenure.

But that won’t be the case for long. The Nuggets will get to work on constructing a team that plays that way, because if Shaw is going to go down he’s going to go down playing the type of basketball he wants to play.

There’s not one surefire way to makeover a roster. In this case, using what little we know we’ve blended free agency and the draft in a way that checks off many of the boxes.

So, for entertainment purposes only, this is how the Nuggets can get from here — 20-33 at the All Star break — to something different, and better, in the future.

Arron Afflalo works against Utah’s Alec Burks in a game earlier this season. (Rick Bowmer, The Associated Press)

The Nuggets are holding firm to seeking a first-round pick from teams wanting to trade for shooting guard Arron Afflalo, according to NBA sources.

There have been no takers, although interest remains high for Afflalo’s services. Teams don’t want to relinquish a first-rounder for a player that might walk on them at the end of the season. Afflalo has a player option for the final year of his contract.

It is a snag that prevented Afflalo from being dealt to Charlotte, sources said. The Hornets had been interested in acquiring Afflalo to add firepower to a team that ranks 27th in the NBA in scoring, at just more than 94 points per game. The trade deadline is Feb. 19.

The Nuggets have already acquired two first-round picks, both coming from Cleveland as part of the Timofey Mozgov trade.

BOSTON — Three takeaways from the Nuggets’ 104-100 loss to the Celtics at TD Garden on Wednesday night.

Jae Crowder’s defending beats Gallinari’s sealing. Two of the Nuggets most critical turnovers late in the game were on plays involving Danilo Gallinari. With the Nuggets down 92-90, Ty Lawson — standing at the 3-point line — attempted an entry pass to Gallinari, who was posted up so high that it allowed Lawson’s defender, Marcus Smart, to be able to guard two players at once. With virtually no usable space between Lawson and Gallo, and with Lawson at a bad angle anyway, his pass was easily tipped and picked off by the high-intensity Smart. And while it can be argued Lawson shouldn’t have made the pass in the first place, had Gallinari walked Jae Crowder down more from his starting spot, which was the 3-point line, and then held his ground to not get pushed so far away from the rim on the post up, things would have been fine. Read more…

OAKLAND — Observations from the Nuggets’ 122-79 loss to Golden State on Monday afternoon at Oracle Arena.

Sticking to Wilson and Afflalo. While Ty Lawson is the Nuggets’ leading scorer, the bulk of the team’s scoring comes from the wing. Golden State knew that, and one off their top priorities was to remove wing scoring from the game. That meant getting to Arron Afflalo and Wilson Chandler early to not allow them to get going. And that task fell on the shoulders of Klay Thompson, Harrison Barnes, Andre Iguodala, Draymond Green and Shaun Livingston. Their first order of business was to crowd both players, both good spot-up shooters, and make them shoot on the move. Read more…

Turnover story. After a solid start to the season in holding down turnovers, the Nuggets have taken steps back in that area of late. On Wednesday they committed 21 turnovers, which the Magic converted into 18 points. Film study reveals that Orlando should be given a credit for being active with their hands and in getting into passing lanes to force some of those miscues. But others could have been prevented.

The bad pass turnover was the Nuggets’ worst enemy, as they were simply attempting passes that had no shot of getting to the target. Orlando forced a few with pressure defense, but many of the 12 didn’t have to happen. Things like getting into the air with nowhere to go and having to force a pass that got picked off. There were four lost ball turnovers, three traveling and two screening turnovers. From Dec. 1 to today, the Nuggets have turned the ball over fifth-most in the NBA, at 15.2 per game. Read more…

Setting a patient tone. The Nuggets’ first three possessions of the game were arguably their most efficient, getting them calmed down early and setting a nice foundation in the half court that they could build upon. Each of the first two possessions featured great reads from the passer, multiple passes and the ball finding the hands of a player that had the space to do something with it.

But it was the third possession of the game that was the Nuggets’ best.

ATLANTA – Three takeaways the morning after the Nuggets’ 96-84 loss to Atlanta on Sunday afternoon.

Finding a few good reserves. The Nuggets bench suffered through one of its worst outings all year long, which would have definitely qualified for the worst outing had Alonzo Gee not played so well in the second half. If you remove Gee’s 14 points on 7-of-9 shooting, the rest of the reserves went 4-of-26 from the field, including 0-of-11 from the 3-point line. Still, off shooting nights happen. The bigger issue is the lack of faith in the bench that crept into Nuggets coach Brian Shaw’s mind. “Sometimes I feel like I can’t take (the starters) out, and I know that I have to,” he said afterward. Read more…

1. Rotation matters. In the last two games, the Nuggets have doled out the lion’s share of the minutes to these five players – Ty Lawson, Arron Afflalo, Wilson Chandler, Kenneth Faried, Timofey Mozgov. Here’s how that breaks down: Those five, the Nuggets’ starting five, have played 44 minutes out of a possible 96, so 45 percent of the time.

Nuggets coach Brian Shaw directs his team during its win Monday over Cleveland. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)

CLEVELAND – Three takeaways the morning after the Nuggets’ 106-97 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday.

1. Starters revenge. Let’s face it: The Nuggets’ starting crew has been a battered bunch – from criticism. And justifiably so in most every case; it hadn’t been a noteworthy early season for them as the Nuggets routinely got out to slow starts and in some cases carried those slow starts throughout feet-in-quicksand full-game performances. But on Monday the starters were the stars. They were the source of the vast majority of production – 81 of the Nuggets’ 106 points, 26 of the 39 rebounds, 17 of the 25 assists – kept the pressure up defensively, the pedal to the metal offensively and made the majority of the game-changing plays. Read more…

1. Finding Afflalo. On Sunday morning, after the team meeting adjourned, Arron Afflalo stayed with coaches to watch more film and ask questions about how he could get a better foothold on his role in the offense. It has been a lukewarm start for Afflalo, now averaging 10.8 points, but against the Trail Blazers he appeared much more fluid within the Nuggets’ offense, which doesn’t necessarily target any one player. Afflalo looked more confident in getting to his spots and more decisive and confident with the ball and more at ease with what his teammates were doing around him.

Nuggets coach Brian Shaw attributed his season-high 18 points on 8-of-14 shooting to Ty Lawson’s presence back in the lineup. “I think it was a direct correlation with the return of Ty and his aggressiveness that got him going,” Shaw said. “So hopefully they’ll continue to find a groove and figure it out.”

Nuggets players Kenneth Faried, left, and JaVale McGee watch during their game against the Kings on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

All options remain on the table for Nuggets coach Brian Shaw in his quest to get his team headed in the right direction. The main issue at the moment is the starting five, which has not performed up to par through the first four games, putting a particular bad taste in Shaw’s mouth after getting down big early in the Nuggets’ loss at Sacramento on Wednesday.

“What I have to do better is recognize when we don’t get off to a good start and when guys aren’t really getting into it, then I have to immediately go to the bench, use a timeout quicker, cut these runs. You start the game 0-0, look up and we’re down 12 already or down 20. So that’s on me.” Read more…

OKLAHOMA CITY — The morning after the Nuggets 102-91 loss at Oklahoma City, here are three observations I took away from the game. And a few other things.

1. Ty’s aggressiveness. The Nuggets ran a play at the start of the game at the Thunder designed for Ty Lawson to quickly get a shot up and get going early. But the play broke down in the face of a stifling Oklahoma City defense and he was not able to get off to the fast start that they’d hoped. That generally lasted most of the first half. There were few driving lanes, there were even fewer fast break opportunities because the Nuggets weren’t getting consistent stops and rebounds on the defensive end. “I think they had 21 free throw attempts in the first half,” Nuggets coach Brian Shaw said. “So that kind of just messed up the flow of the game. So either they were going to the free throw line or they were hitting shots. And now we have to take the ball out of the net every time, and they get to set up their defense.” Read more…

Donning a JaVale McGee No. 34 jersey while perched on a ladder in front of Pepsi Center on Wednesday was Gamma Acosta, a local graffiti artist who has freehand spray-painted a number of murals around the city of the Broncos and Peyton Manning.

As the Nuggets battled the Pistons on the court in their season opener, Acosta was just feet away, framing the visages of Kenneth Faried, Ty Lawson and Arron Afflalo, one spray of paint at a time, starting at 8:30 a.m. and finishing a little after 10:30 p.m.

On Thursday, the billboard went up at the intersection of Broadway St. and Louisiana Ave., where it will stay for a month before rotating to another of the Nuggets’ billboard locations around the city.

Acosta and the Nuggets teamed with Mile High Outdoor, an advertising company that operates more than 400 billboards throughout the state, on the project. The mural now stands as one of the few, if not the only, paint-on-canvas billboards in the area; most are digital displays or posters draped over a frame.

As the team and Acosta brainstormed ideas that could be completed in the short timespan, they settled on an image of three players:

The Nuggets open the 2014-15 season Wednesday at home against the Pistons, and despite the bleak outlook many in and out of the NBA have for Denver this year, GM Tim Connelly has high hopes.

After a season in which they turned in one of their worst records ever (36-46), the Nuggets are, for the most part, finally healthy. They bring with him some new faces and depth that few teams can match.

Connelly who will be at Session Kitchen this evening as part of The Denver Post’s Nuggets Night, along with Christopher Dempsey and Benjamin Hochman (it’s not too late to buy tickets!), joined The Press Box Monday morning to weigh in on the season, and some players he has views as key pieces to the team’s success.

“The core of this team has won together, and they’ve done it before as presently constructed,” Connelly said. “Some of our peripheral guys are guys that we can count on, our depth makes us unique. And the second year under both (coach) Brian (Shaw) and myself, there’s a lot more continuity that often times helps with success. I’m optimistic by nature, but objectively, we have a bunch of guys that are good to very good NBA players who are playing with a chip on their shoulder.”

With the addition of 7-footer Jusuf Nurkic via the draft, the Nuggets are now stacked at the center position, where he’ll fight for minutes with veterans JaVale McGee and Timofey Mozgov.Read more…

Faried, who is coming off somewhat of a breakout summer with Team USA during the FIBA World Cup, was voted as the league’s best role player (tied with San Antonio’s Boris Diaw), and earned the fourth-most votes for the best offensive rebounder (7.1 percent), as well as the toughest player in the league (7.4 percent, tied with Sacramento’s Reggie Evans).

Faried also garnered the fifth-most votes (7.4 percent) among players expected to have a breakout season in 2014-15.

Nuggets F Danilo Gallinari goes for a layup in his team’s preseason game at Chicago on Monday. (AP Photo/Jeff Haynes)

The question, as it seemingly always has been for the Nuggets, is can they play fast and still play solid defense?

Early on in camp, Nuggets coach Brian Shaw predicted defense to be one of the areas his team will experience the most growth. “I think the biggest area of improvement that you’ll see is going to be on the defensive end,” Shaw said.

A lot of that had to do with adding personnel – shot blocking in JaVale McGee, perimeter defense in Arron Afflalo and Gary Harris. Read more…

Chris Dempsey arrived at The Denver Post in Dec. 2003 after seven years at the Boulder Daily Camera, where he primarily covered the University of Colorado football and men's basketball teams. A University of Colorado-Boulder alumnus, Dempsey covers the Nuggets and also chips in on college sports.